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Stranger in a Strange Land Newsletter August, 2004

Stranger in a Strange Land Newsletter August, 2004

Dear Readers,
It has been an exciting, interesting, adventurous, and largely, exhausting month. Wow. The month started with me teaching four, five, or six lessons every day followed by the arrival of my brother on the 13th of August. It was the first time my little brother Andrew ever went to a foreign country. In case you didn't notice it was Friday the 13th that he arrived in his first foreign country, and boy, do I have some stories to tell about that...

Actually, I don't. Everything went fine on Friday. There was also a Friday the 13th last February and that was a terrible day, but I can only talk about things pertaining to August in this newsletter, sorry.

All said and done we went to Tokyo (you know Tokyo), Yokohama (famous old port town), Hiroshima (which has more to its history and character than the A-bomb), Himeji (which has apparently the coolest castle in Japan), Kyoto (most historical, lovely, temple filled city in Japan), Osaka (I live there, by the way), and little old Mino (a.k.a. "Monkey Mountain").

We honestly did like the Monkey Mountain the best. Granted we had the super cool "Rail Pass" where you can travel all over Japan in no time on the Bullet Trains with unlimited use. Nevertheless, we went to Mino twice: half an hour away by a little slow train and not a place that people travel very far to see. But it was a nice hike along a river with the most beautiful, peaceful Japanese maple trees surrounding you on all sides. It's a sanctuary from... Osaka: a city mostly full of concrete blocks as Andrew put it.

Hiroshima has cool street cars, for some reason that makes a city cooler. Oddly, the Japanese nickname for the street car is "chin-chin" which is also a Japanese nickname for penis. (Now before we pass judgment on such a silly aspect of the Japanese language let's review what many English speakers do: "Hi, nice to meet you. My name is Penis." Honestly, it happens all the time but they usually say "Dick" which is even more offensive than "penis," you have to admit.) Anyway, my friend, native to Hiroshima, told me this "chin-chin" fact and she and her brother drove us around to the coolest places in Hiroshima. They took us to this amazing temple that was actually on an island and the temple was right on the water, raised up with the tide rising and falling below it. It was so beautiful to walk around on the raised wooden walkways. There was also a very large gate right out in the water (depending on the tide) and apparently we were very lucky to see it because it just fell over!

Natural phenomena have been crazy in Japan: earthquakes, tsunami, and typhoons galore. Oh my. And well Hiroshima got hit really hard with a typhoon a few days ago and this free standing wooden gate, honestly 16 meters tall and 24 meters wide, was blown over with the wind and rain.

To boot, I felt my first earthquake last Sunday. I also felt my second earthquake Sunday and have felt my third and fourth earthquake during this week. The last one I slept through: I'm getting used to them. But seriously, they each lasted for almost a minute and
you could really feel things shaking. I was of course very anxious but the old natives, used to this kind of thing, were very anxious too. Anyway, no real damage or anything, just personally now every time I hear a window shake I get really frightened.

Well, I'm failing to make this a short, concise SIASL as I like to do but the truth is I've been so exhausted that I haven't been writing the Gerzon Weekly. So, I haven't had an outlet for my writing but also I just really want to make sure I finally send something, regardless of the fact that ideally, a piece of writing is often whittled away to a high
concentration of beautiful, exciting, profound prose! Churchill said right before giving a speech: "Sorry I didn't have long enough to make this short." (So I agree with you in principle Mark, just not this instance.) Also, damnit, I have a lot of news to tell!

Anyway, we actually went to Hiroshima twice to make sure we had plenty of time to go see the Peace Memorial Park and museum. The museum was very extensive on the history of Hiroshima and what happened before and after the bombing. The feeling one
got from the displays about the lead-up to the bombing of Hiroshima was largely based on posturing and experimentation: showing the Russians who was going to be boss after WWII and the desire to see exactly what this very expensive experiment was going to do in real life. It was not about stopping the war quickly and saving lives in the end. It was about dick waving and guinea pigs. Despite that impassioned metaphor the part that affected me the most was about a girl and paper cranes.

There was a girl in Hiroshima outwardly unaffected by the bombing but years later diagnosed with leukemia when she was twelve years old. So, lying in her hospital bed she started working on making 1000 paper cranes, which was supposed to be a sure way to have a wish granted. So this little dude, kept on making paper cranes wishing for life. Over several months she kept making paper cranes, 644 in all, until a few days before she died. There's just something about those cranes. They're just worth something regardless of the fact that she died. Those cranes are worth something I tell you.

That's all I got readers. Thanks so much for reading. I hope to talk to you soon. I'm doing pretty well here and am thinking about and working on some cool things. Anyway, take care of yourself.

All the best,
Eli